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Pumpkins are a worthy vegetable, not just a Halloween prop

Cutting into a raw pumpkin can be a challenge, but Louise Gagnon has a few suggestions, including using a sturdy knife and a hammer.

Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf
, The Gazette

A pumpkin, to Montreal nutritionist Louise Gagnon, is a terrible thing to waste.

Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes — not just the Jack-o’-lantern, a standard fixture in front of so many homes on Halloween night — are everywhere at outdoor markets and in grocery stores these days, along with other forms of winter squash. (Yes, a pumpkin is a kind of squash.)

Gagnon, author of a delightful book devoted to pumpkins and other squash, Sous le charme des courges et des citrouilles (Éditions de l’Homme, 2011), calls herself passionate about pumpkins — and thinks there’s something sad about all those smashed and decaying orange orbs on the streets and sidewalks in the days following Halloween.

She cites a Statistics Canada figure setting the waste factor in fruits and vegetables at 50 per cent. For pumpkins around Halloween, she believes the figure is considerably higher.

Gagnon likes pumpkins for their taste, their versatility — they can be stuffed or sautéed, incorporated into everything from soups to spreads — and their nutritional value: they’re high in vitamins A and C, in potassium and fibre: they provide protein, iron, zinc and more. Pumpkin seeds, too, have considerable nutritional value.

And so she has given workshops at a couple of markets on how best to save pumpkins, and savour them. In entertaining presentations at Jean Talon Market last weekend and at L’Autre marché Angus in Rosemont-La Petite Patrie last month, the Châtelaine columnist provided instructions and advice on using them wisely and well.

Among Gagnon’s suggestions:

1. If it has not been carved or otherwise mutilated, a pumpkin can simply be cut in half, emptied of its seeds and stringy bits and roasted, cut side down, on a baking sheet that has sides, at 375 degrees F until its flesh is tender. To prevent sticking, use parchment paper or oil the pan lightly. The technique works well for other forms of good-sized winter squash, too, like butternut or sugar pumpkins: they’re ready when the skin yields to gentle pressure — usually between about 40 and 60 minutes, depending on the fruit’s size and texture. (Botanically, a pumpkin is a fruit, because it has seeds, although it is often prepared in a savoury context as a vegetable or a soup.)

Cool slightly and then scrape the flesh off the skin with a large metal spoon. The flesh can then be mashed with a fork or puréed in a food processor or blender and portioned into plastic bags or other containers and frozen — then added all winter long to everything from soups to muffins.

2. Consider decorating your pumpkin without carving it: try appliqués or collage as alternatives in which the fruit remains intact.

3. If you’re determined to carve your pumpkin, cut off the top or a round from the bottom, remove the seeds and strings and scoop out the flesh, or meat, first with a melon baller so that it can then be steamed and mashed or puréed and added to soups or muffins or any recipe that calls for pumpkin purée.If you won’t be carving a face into a Jack-o’-lantern and using it as a lantern, it’s simpler to slice it first like a melon and then peel it, suggests The Daily Green (thedailygreen.com), a consumer guide from the Good Housekeeping people.)

4. Think outside the Jack-o’-lantern: it’s not the only variety of pumpkin: the sugar pumpkin, for instance, with its thin skin and sweet flesh, is less grainy and stringy. The Lumina pumpkin, which has a white exterior and orange flesh, and the Fairytale, known also as the Musque de Provence, are well-suited for pies. The Kakai, orange with dark green ribs, has hull-less seeds, which roast well.

5. If you’re determined to use your pumpkin as a lantern, wait until just a day or two before Halloween to carve it — and then line its interior with aluminum foil before lighting a candle inside to keep the flesh from getting full of soot. Cook the pumpkin as soon as possible after the trick-or-treaters have come and gone, taking care to discard whatever bits look spoiled or tired.

6. Many think that smaller pumpkins, like The Jack-Be-Little, Jack-Be-Quick or Wee-Be-Little, are merely decorative. But they are edible — and, in many cases, denser and more flavourful than the Jack-o’-lantern. And preparing them can be as simple as removing the threads and seeds, pouring a bit of maple syrup into the cavity, adding a bit of butter, baking it at 350 degrees F for 20 or 25 minutes and eating it with a spoon, Gagnon said. An alternative is to scoop the flesh from these babies, preserve the meat for another use — and then roast them and use them to hold risotto or cheese fondue. Some cooks even use larger pumpkins as cooking and serving vessels (see Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for a pumpkin filled with all kinds of stuff), although this can be daunting to a beginning cook.

Its thick skin makes it a challenge to cut into a raw pumpkin, even a small one, but Gagnon demonstrated a few effective techniques: stick a sturdy knife into the pumpkin (the skin tends to be thinner away from the stem) and bang it against the counter or another hard surface – or plunge the knife in the pumpkin and use a hammer to bang on the handle. For large pumpkins, try enclosing them in a large plastic bag and dropping them from a height — ideally onto a floor with a hard surface, like concrete.

To prepare the seeds, remove them from the pumpkin and set them out, unrinsed, in a single layer on a baking tray overnight to dry, she suggested, and offered this informal recipe: for every two cups of seeds, add 2 teaspoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of brown sugar, a teaspoon of curry and 2 teaspoons of fleur de sel. Mix together and spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast at 300 degrees F for about 35 minutes, stirring about halfway through. Cool before serving.

Unlike most other varieties, the Jack-o’-lantern was bred for its thick rind and not its flesh; so although it’s edible, it can be watery — which makes it a less-than-ideal choice for pumpkin pie: better choices are the sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin.

“Trust me,” blogger Aimée Wimbush-Bourque, editor of the excellent food website Simple Bites (simplebites.net), noted in a recent post on pumpkin pie. “Keep the Jack-o’-lanterns for carving and for roasting the seeds; bake the pie pumpkin.”

Once the pumpkin has been baked and the flesh puréed, the purée can be used as is, but she likes to strain it first by putting it through a fine sieve: the liquid can be used later in muffins or pancakes, she wrote. Other cooks use cheesecloth or drain the purée through coffee filters. Some place the purée on paper towelling and then blot it with more paper towels — but that’s an awful lot of paper. And waste. And Gagnon feels strongly about waste: if you don’t have the time to cook your pumpkin, pass it on to a neighbour who might, she recommends — or, at the very least, put it in a compost pile.

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